Electric Carsharing Service Launches in Warsaw

Cheaper and faster than a taxi, while being friendly to the environment. Warsaw residents now have access to a new mode of transportation via a new electric car sharing service. To use it, one only needs a driver's license and a smartphone.

uatv

25.04.2019

Ukrainian Yevhen Prykhodko, a Ukrainian living and working in Warsaw, Poland doesn’t have a car of his own. But a new carsharing service that launched just up the street from him gives him the ability to drive anyway.

“I downloaded an app off the internet, put in my Ukrainian driver’s license and the confirmation came right away. On the map, I found the car nearest to my home. Of course, before that, I watched a video online on how to operate this car. It’s very modern, completely silent. You only have to press the START-STOP button and it’s unclear whether the car’s on or not because nothing happens aside from the message popping up on the screen saying that the car is on,” he said.

This car sharing service became available in Warsaw two weeks ago. Since then 20,000 users have downloaded the application.

“We press here to scan to QR code located on the door. And – the car’s open! That’s it,” Prykhodko said, demonstrating.

One minute of use will set you back $00.34. Once you’ve reached your destination the car can be left at any parking space. And the carsharing customers are not required to pay for parking. Another benefit of this mode of transit is that the drivers can get through traffic more quickly by using bus lanes – a privilege enjoyed by electric vehicles in Poland. The entire fleet of the carsharing service is electric.

“You can step on it and – you can feel the speed. It gets from naught to 100 KPH in seven seconds,” Prykhodko said.

This is one of some 350 EVs in carsharing fleet in Warsaw. And the company is working to increase this number to 500 in the coming weeks. The project leader said the electric cars are green in more ways than one.

“Ninety percent of the materials that go into this car can be recycled. Look, at the material this dashboard is made of. And the seats are made out of recycled plastic bottles,” project leader Andrzej Poplawski said.

The Warsaw car sharing service is the first one in Poland and among the first in Europe. With different levels of regulations – from those of the EU to those of local governments in big cities – implementing restrictions on polluting vehicles and introducing incentives for EVs, electric car sharing services like the one in Warsaw are likely to become more popular and widespread.

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